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Report: Madagascar’s major nickel mine suspended for one month

2018-01-12

Operations at Sumitomo Corp’s Ambatovy nickel mine in Madagascar were suspended on January 4 before hurricane Ava hit, the company said on Thursday January 11.

Some equipment has been damaged but the maintenance work has started. The company expected the repairing work to finish by the end of January while production would be halted during the time, Reuters reported.

This would have some impact on Chinese domestic steel mills as they import nickel briquette from the mine under a tax-free policy.

According to SMM data, the mine produced 34,000 mt of nickel briquette in 2017. Global nickel output last year stood at 173,100 mt.

The mine also produces by-products including cobalt and ammonium sulfate.